The 9th Annual Emirates Glass LEAF Awards proved to be a huge success attracting a whole host of recognisable faces from the architectural community. On 16 September 2011 this spectacular evening took place in the stunning surroundings of the Landmark hotel, which was admired by the many guests that attended.
The 2011 shortlist included some of the world's most iconic buildings and designs. The lucky winners of the evening were:
Mixed-Use Building of the Year: TODD Architects
Mixed-Use Building of the Year
TODD Architects, The Boat, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Harry Dougherty
Judges' Comments:
The Boat in Belfast in Northern Ireland sits on the newly revived Customs House Square, a gateway to the city next to the River Lagan. This 14-storey tower incorporates apartments above offices, and a restaurant and a bar at ground level.
Its highly glazed facades exert solar control via a bespoke external aluminium louvre system with hardwood shading, and the Boat’s roof is a lightweight construction.
We appreciate the fact that this innovative live/work/leisure building is almost certainly the first of its kind in the city of Belfast. As one of its few contemporary landmark buildings, it contributes successfully to its environment.
Residential Building of the Year (Single Occupancy)
Studio mk27 punta house, Punta Del Este, Uruguay, (client confidential)
Judges' Comments:
Punta House overlooks a reservoir in the countryside close to the city of Punta Del Leste in Uruguay. With its simple, one level plan, the house’s orientation strongly connects it with its environment. The surrounding landscape can be seen through folding, carved wood masharabiya screens that open out to nature, while the design nonetheless achieves a high level of privacy.
Winning project:
OBR Open Building Research for Milanofiori Residential Complex
Residential Building of the Year (Multiple Occupancy)
OBR Open Building Research S.r.l. Milanofiori Residential Complex Milan, Italy Milanofiori 2000 S.r.l
Judges' Comments:
The Milanofiori housing complex at Assago, to the south of Milan,is part of the Milanofiori North mixed use development, a new gateway to the city. It has 107 apartments in a C-shaped complex.
One façade facing the street has an urban feel with movable wooden screens; the other facing the inner park is terraced with double glazed facades enclosing bioclimatic greenhouses.
The geometry of the building optimizes the solar passive design, and each apartment has an indoor-outdoor garden behind the glass.
Commercial Building of the Year
ESTUDI MASSIP-BOSCH ARQUITECTES, Diagonal ZeroZero Telefonica Tower, Barcelona, Spain, Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona
Judges' Comments:
The Diagonal ZeroZero Telefonica Tower is a stunning office complex rising 100 metres. With its exceptional location at the entrance to Barcelona’s main thoroughfare of the Diagonal, this 21st century minaret is highly visible from the city and from the coast.
Its sharp and stylised yet serene trapezoidal prism form has a modular curtain wall façade of thin white aluminium profiles like vertical wave forms. Low-iron, extra-transparent glass with patterned ceramic serigraphy reinforces the building’s slenderness, and contributes to solar diffusion and glare control.
International Interior Design Award: RHWL Architects
International Interior Design Award
RHWL Architects - St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London, Manhattan Loft Corporation
Judges' Comments:
The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel is an extensive and sensitive refurbishment of the Victorian Gothic and Grade 1-listed St Pancras Chambers designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott.
It was originally opened in 1876 as a 244-room, five-star Marriott Renaissance Hotel and 66 luxury apartments.
With Gothic Revival metalwork, gold leaf ceilings, hand-stencilled wall designs, the fantastic aura of the building has come back to life, through the efforts of what the judges recognise as a huge commitment by all concerned.
In a very competitive category, it was a treat for us to choose this scheme rescuing a unique atmospheric design now hailed as one of London’s most romantic buildings. We hope it will encourage others to restore and renovate noteworthy existing urban fabric to avoid losing it forever.
International Off-Site Construction Project of the Year
Populous - London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority London, UK
Judges' Comments:
The London Olympic Stadium is a structure that will be seen throughout the world during next summer’s Games. It is simple and to the point in appearance, designed to be the most sustainable stadium ever built. With steel as a resource in short supply, it was made 75% lighter in its use of the material than other stadia. It uses a low-carbon concrete made from industrial waste and contains 40% less embodied carbon than usual.
It is designed to be flexible enough to accommodate many different requirements and capacities in the future, so it can be a first-rate venue for sports as well as cultural and community events and leave a lasting legacy.
Congratulations to Populous for this world-beating project.
Young Architect
dEMM arquitectura - PAULO FERNANDES SILVA, Living Foz Porto, Portugal, J Camilo, lda
Judges' Comments:
With its breathtaking view of the sea and the mouth of the Douro River in Oporto, Portugal, the Living Foz is an apartment building with gardens designed with a new approach to high-quality residential buildings.
40 apartments distributed over 7 floors use 30% of the plot area leaving the rest for the collectively used garden.
The articulated angles of the balconies create spaces enriched by contrasts of light and shade, exposure and protection emphasised by the white cast-in-place concrete and dark glass reinforced concrete.
Best Structural Design of the Year: schmidt hammer lassen architects
Best Structural Design of the Year
schmidt hammer lassen architects, The Crystal København, Denmark
Judges' Comments:
The Crystal is an extension to the Danish mortgage bank Nykredit.
It’s a new building sited on a plaza between the harbour front and the old part of Copenhagen, a new waterfront landmark harmonizing with its neighbouring buildings.
The Crystal has a rhombic construction system allowing the building to dispense with pillars, and is low-energy.
The floor plan is a Z-shape around two atria, which ensures that all workstations are well-lit and enjoy good views out.
We were excited by the bravura of the Crystal’s remarkable geometry, elegant interiors and flexibility within the 6 floors, and its fine contribution to the waterfront.
Public Building of the Year - Joint winners
Diaz & Diaz Arquitectos, Building of Control CCS, Outer Harbour of Ferrol,
Port Authority of Ferrol - San iprian, Galicia, Spain
Steven Holl Architects, Cite de L’Ocean et du Surf, Biarritz,
France, City of Biarritz
Judges' Comments:
The Building of Control CCS is a landmark for the port of Ferrol in Spain - a beacon for arriving shipping.
The aim was to create a unique intelligent building with presence, high construction quality and a simple design that is functionally long-lasting and low cost to maintain.
The building is conceived as diaphanous, clear and bright and affording excellent views out.
The structure on pilotis seems to grow naturally as if extruded out of the harbour wall and is then wrapped by its elegantly designed double skin façade.
Best Sustainable Technology Incorporated into a Building
JSWD ARCHITEKTEN, Q1 Building, ThyssenKrupp Quarter Essen, Germany, ThyssenKrupp AG, Essen with Chaix & Morel et Associes
Judges' Comments:
The Q1 Building in Essen, Germany, forms the heart of the new ThyssenKrupp Quarter on the site of the old cast steel production facility.
Extending across 11 floors of flexible areas it is structured by intermediate levels and floating bridges.
The windowpanes are supported by filigree cable constructions, so that the windows appear to be made from a single pane of glass.
The innovative and efficient sun shading system for large parts of Q1’s façade has more than 3,000 metal feathers.
Q1 is a masterly design for a workplace for 500 staff in this new urban quarter providing space for work, leisure and culture.
Best Sustainable Development in Keeping with its Environment
LAN, EDF Archives Centre, Bure-Saudron, France, EDF
Judges' Comments:
The EDF Archives building fully integrates into the landscape of Bure-Saudron in the rural heart of eastern France while meeting stringent environmental quality standards. This is a building that houses energy company EDF’s millions of documents on 70 kilometres of shelves.
The building appears lightweight and in movement, due to stainless steel studs in the earth-coloured concrete cladding.
Trees planted around the buildings mirror the natural patterns of the surrounding countryside and there is a system of lagoons that recycle and reuse water.
Winning project:
OBR Open Building Research for Milanofiori Residential Complex
OVERALL WINNER
OBR Open Building Research for Milanofiori Residential Complex
Judges' Comments:
Picking an overall winner worthy of the Emirates Glass Leaf Award was not easy this year; in fact, we the judges asked for two extra weeks in which to assess and evaluate four of the category winners. After further debate, the Milanofiori Housing Complex by OBR Open Building Research was confirmed as the overall winner.
With its elegant overlap of different layers, OBR’s scheme interacts meaningfully with nature, and - something we regard as significant today – allows residents to personalise their landscape.
OBR’s design reminds us that city living is wholly compatible with progressive design, bringing the advantages to city dwellers of the garden setting and the sense of being rooted in the neighbourhood.
We, the Leaf judges, also appreciate OBR’s effort to create a meaningful relationship with the overall masterplan for the mixed use district of Milanofiori North designed by Erick van Egeraat, matching its high standards and positive ideals.
His plan defines a cluster of programmes whose elements appear to follow the characteristics of the surrounding landscape, creating a public park as an extension of the existing forest. Bravo once again to the Italian team!
The Special Commendation Award went to:
Project: University of Naples Subway Station by Karim Rashid Inc
Client: Comune di Napoli (Municipality of Napoli) Metropolitana di Napoli.
To view the complete shortlist of entrants please go to Leaf Awards 2011.
Further Information:
www.leaf-awards.com
